Yale students launch hunger strike for Gaza: "We reject our university and government's complicity"
New Haven, Connecticut - Six members of the Yale University community over the weekend launched a hunger strike in solidarity with the besieged and starving people of Palestine.
"Yale has watched 19 months of genocide go by and said nothing, SHAME. Yale has allowed over 61 days of zero food or aid to enter Gaza, allowing people to starve, SHAME. Yale has allowed the revoking of student visas and the suppression of free speech, SHAME," Yalies4Palestine posted on Instagram.
"As students we reject our university and government’s complicity. We must divest financially and ideologically NOW."
The six hunger strikers – who have not released their identities – initiated the action with a series of demands to the university administration:
Adopt an Investment Policy Statement including human rights guarantees, such as the one passed by San Francisco State University in December 2024
- Financially divest from all corporations that supply weapons, military technology, surveillance systems, and other services to Israel
- End partnerships with Tel Aviv University, the Peace and Dialogue Leadership Initiative, and all fellowships that fund student travel to Israel
- Repeal restrictive free speech policies
- Ensure protections from punishment for all peaceful student protesters, including those participating in the hunger strike
The hunger strikers announced their intention to sit outside the campus' Sheffield-Sterling-Strathcona Hall (SSS), location of President Maurie McInnis' office, on each day of the protest. They have called on supporters to join them there.
Hunger strikers accuse Yale of attempting to "erase our presence"
On Day 1 of the hunger strike, Yalies4Palestine said they had sat for five hours outside the building.
"They [university administrators] ignored our demands and instead called police, and Yale Public Safety to take down our banner, furthering their efforts to erase our presence," the group posted in an Instagram update.
The following day reportedly saw a similar response from university leadership.
"Heavy intimidation tactics were implemented today, including large Yale Police presence surrounding the area," the Day 2 update read.
"Before strikers arrived at SSS, there were public safety officers waiting to confront them. Yale Police and Public Safety took photos throughout the day, and Yale administrators constantly demanded hunger strikers to move, causing excess exertion of energy."
The Yale College Council in December announced the student body had overwhelmingly passed a referendum calling on the university to disclose its holdings and divest from military weapons manufacturers, "including those arming Israel," as well as to invest in Palestinian scholars and students.
Cover photo: Screenshot/Instagram/yalies4palestine